Can't get my 5 month old to sleep for longer than 5 minutes! help!

This has been going on for about 2 weeks now and I'm that exhausted i nearly fainted today, so i need help. Mia has her day sleeps at 9am, 12pm and 3pm and bed at 7pm. Well these day sleeps have turned into a nightmare. It usually only take 10-20 mins to get her to sleep but she wakes 5 minutes later. I feel like i have tired everything. I go in and resettle which takes about an hour to get her back to sleep and she will sleep for mayb 15 mins. Sometimes it doesnt work at all and she will just lay there awake. I have tried going in as soon as she starts stiring before she wakes, but nope.. that doesnt work either. I have tried, rocking, patting, head and eye stroking, belly rubbing.. changing her potition.. nothing works.

She USED to sleep great during the day. For them 3 sleeps about 3-4 hours sleep.

As I am all new to this baby sleep thing I dont really have any advice for you! Bella used to sleep maybe 2 x 1/2 hr sleeps during the day and I couldnt change that either.. but she now has maybe 5-6 1/2 hr sleeps and sleeps 10pm - 10am - so I guess it just goes to show that sleep habits change for now real reason - maybe its just a phase??

Can you get some one to come over and look after her while you have a rest??

Bella used to fight her sleeps and I found that if I tried to make her sleep then she would just fight it more so now I let her stay up and as soon as I see the eye rub or the yawn will put her to sleep. She has not gone into a phase that she will only have her day sleeps on my bed as I lay down with her and stroke her or pat her back till she drifts off.. can you try that? I have had a few naps with her too and its good for both of us..

Oh hugs hun. We have only just gotten into a routine now and DD is almost 10 months.

There has been so many ups and MANY MANY downs. We tried everything. in the end all DD needed was a few days of adjusted routine and thingsstarted improving. She was having 2-3 day sleeps and waking every few hours at night. She always seemed tired. Once we change things round i started by stretching her day sleeps out... (had to put up with horid screaming and crying til she adjusted. We dropped down 1 sleep in few days then found night sleeps improved and she was settling easier for her sleeps. Then we noticed she wasnt sleeping long in the morning 9.30 sleep (which went to only 1/2 hour. So now she wakes anywhere from 6-7.30 then her only day sleep is around 11-12 and last for 2-3 hours. Then by 5 she is getting sooky again but we do dinner then bath then bottle then bed.

You may need to fiddle with her routine. Maybe try to see what she responds to best- strething out sleeps or seeing signs early and acting on them early. My DS i had to put him to bed when i 1st saw signs of tired nedd cos overtired he was shocking. DD likes to stretch things out.

Jess - the night sleeping is fine prob 5 out of the 7 nights. She co-sleeps. She has her last feed at 6pm and goes down at 7 and then i give her a dream feed about 10ish and she wakes about 6:30-7am. See i havent put her in that routine, she did it herself. By 9am shes getting real whingy same with the 12 and 3 one. Shes one of these bubs that only really cries when shes tired. So the way it goes atm is...

Hollye have you tried taking her for a walk in the pram or slinging her at about the time she would be due for a sleep? When DS has terrible won't sleep yucky phase sleeps I usually find that things that put him to sleep a month or two ago start working again, almost like a regression until the yucky phase passes.

Or, and this is a big OR... what about some loud music or loud vaccuuming? I take DS to the gym with me once a week where there is loud blaring music and he usually sleeps the 30 min walk to the gym, through my 40 min session and the 30 min walk home. This is very unusual behaviour for him, as he will normally only sleep 30-40 mins at a time at home. I'm too scared to try it myself though, but it is interesting!

*big hugs* to you hun,*you must be feeling shattered and just awful. Is there anyone that can look after DD for an hour or two so you can have a bit of a rest? Or if not maybe try napping with her so you can get some rest - you must really need it.

I did a sleep school day program, and they suggested that by the time they get to whingy they're into overtired already where it can be harder to get to sleep and stay there.

Maybe you could try putting her down half an hour earlier?

Weird sleep signals they told me to look for were grabbing at clothes, a little cough, hiccoughs, a little vomit, movement then pause then movement, avoiding eye contact, then the obvious rubbing at eyes and yawning meant overtired was going to happen soon. They said the subtle signs on their own didn't mean tired, but 3 or 4 in a cluster could be tired.

Is she getting more active? Could u maybe start by stretching her out til like 9.30 instead of 9 (slowly slowly) But if she is generally tired i was going to suggest most of the above next. I used the sling and it was great. Now DD is too heavy for me to use while vacuuming.

I found that when DD gets worked up being hot makes her less likly to fall asleep so if she has been upset and is hot i put her to bed with the fan on low so she is cooled down to sleep. (i turn it off once she is sleeping

Oh hun...huge hugs! I know how painful sleep issues are. My dd has 4-5 30min naps in the day, BUT it can take 45 mins of settling to get her to sleep! Its so exhausting! (Plus she wakes 3-5 times a night!!)

Do you put her to sleep in your arms and then put her down? Or comfort her in the cot/on the bed? If she's waking after 5 mins she might not actually be in a deep sleep yet. I found I had to wait that extra bit longer before I could creep out of the room/transfer her to her cot.

Hope you arent going too insane!
Are you still giving her solids hun? what times and how often? have you changed how often she is being fed at all? Charlottes sleep often gets erratic when we change her meal times or something.
Perhaps worth having a look a any new foods you have introduced in the last week or so to see if they are affecting her.
Taking her for a walk is definately a great idea, or the car is usually a winner for us.

Tish - yep tried the pram. Shes too busy looking at everything. The car does work sometimes, but im not into getting in the car everytime she needs to sleep. Yep tried the vacuuming.. if shes crying she will just cry over the top of it. Nope cant get anyone to look after her except DP and he works 40 hours a week..

Jess - yes she is getting more active. Shes quite insane atm.. rolls everywhere.. is trying to crawl, squeels at everything and just has to be near everything. lol. Yes i think im going to try and mayb stretch out her awake time. Even if she does scream at me for a week or so, she should get used to being up for longer yeh?

anna - she gets comforted in the bed. Thats the thing.. even if im laying with her, she will still wake in 5 mins time and i still have to lay there with her rocking etc for about an hour to get her to have 5 more mins.

Lime slice - Mia started solids sorta today. She had a little munch on some pumpkin about 1:30pm. She is chowing down her teething rusks tho and its grinding them real hard on her gums. She is also pulling her hair and her ears too. She gets her fingers in her mouth and pulls at her gums. Today she actually started chewing on her dummy.. which is unlike her. I cant feel any teeth tho... she also has had some wopper poo;'s today! like everywhere runny poo's and they stink to the high heavens.

Poor little thing! Sounds like those teeth are trying to make an entrance!
Dont know if it will work, but try giving her a cold face washer to chew on, or some ice chips. Charlotte doesnt have it often, but if she is teething and cant sleep I give her some bonjela - she hates the stuff, but it works for us!

They can teeth for a while before the teeth appear...Charlotte would have bouts of every few weeks or so from about 4 months. She didnt get her first teeth until she was 9 months. Turns out she was cutting both bottom teeth at once...has cross cut two or more at once ever since! Hang in there hun, lotsa cuddles and she may settle down again in a few days. Hopefully the teeth come through soon and she can get some proper rest. (And so can you!)

Jess - i followed your advice this morning. I put her down 15 mins after her normal sleep time and put a really light blanket on her. And... shes been alseep about an hour! Fingers crossed its not a fluke. She slept quite well last night... a solid 10.5 hours so mayb that has helped too?